Leaders stumble again: Bundesliga reviews

The Bundesliga is rapidly becoming the league nobody wants to win. Neither of the top two won, Schalke going down to a shock loss at struggling Hannover and Bayern being held by erstwhile leaders Leverkusen. Dortmund, in fourth, suffered a knock to their Champions League - if not championship - ambitions with defeat in Mainz. An Arjen Robben penalty for Bayern was quickly cancelled out by Arturo Vidal's free-kick while Schalke really did blow it against Hannover. Heiko Westermann put through his own net early on to give Hannover the lead and it was doubled on the half hour by Didier Ya Konan. A minute after the restart, Edu pulled one back and it was all square thanks to Ivan Rakitic's penalty a few minutes later. Hanno Baltisch swung the game back towards the hosts with a 25-yard rasper and Ya Konan added a fourth in stoppage time for a result which gives Hannover real hope of avoiding the drop. Dortmund went down to Adam Szalai's solo effort while Bremen took advantage, pulling back to a point behind their rivals with a comprehensive defeat of lowly Freiburg, Claudio Pizarro getting two.

That result sees Freiburg slip to second bottom, but it's still Hertha rooted to the foot of the table after Cacau got the only goal for Stuttgart in a 1-0 win. Bochum fall back after an unlucky defeat to Hamburg. Robert Tesche put Hamburg ahead, but Zlatko Dedic, playing with pain killing injections in his broken toe, prodded Bochum level. The Hamburg goal led a charmed life thereafter, but Hamburg broke late on and, under pressure from Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andreas Johansson poked the ball past his own keeper. Nurnberg also remain in trouble after defeat to Wolfsburg. They looked value for at least a point against the champions who bounced back from Europa League disappointment with two goals on the break and a string of top drawer saves from Diego Benaglio. Edin Dzeko went top of the goal scoring standings with the first and Grafite sealed it ten minutes from time.

Hoffenheim's miserable run continued with another home defeat in front of an increasingly grumbly crowd, Adam Matuschyk with both Cologne goals. And Gladbach overcame Eintracht on Friday night with early goals in each half, Danté in the first and Marco Reus in the second.